Situating the War of 1812 in our National Narrative

The War of 1812 marked the end of....

Source: Pictorial History of Michigan: The Early Years, George S. May, 1967

Source: Atlas of Michigan, ed. Lawrence M. Sommers, 1977.

Preservation of republicanism and Republicanism.

The War of 1812 served as the beginning of....

Commercial Conventions (1816, 1818) Rush Bagot agreement (1818). Less problematic borders.

By 1803: Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio By 1821: Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri

14VermontMarch 4, KentuckyJune 1, TennesseeJune 1, OhioMarch 1, LouisianaApril 30, IndianaDecember 11, MississippiDecember 10, IllinoisDecember 3, AlabamaDecember 14, MaineMarch 15, MissouriAugust 10, ArkansasJune 15, MichiganJan 26, FloridaMarch 3, TexasDecember 29, IowaDecember 28, WisconsinMay 29, CaliforniaSeptember 9, 1850

Recent Books Alan Taylor, The Slave War of 1812, forthcoming. Adam Rothman, Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South, Harvard, Matthew Mason, Slavery and Politics in the Early American Republic, John Hammond and Mason, eds. The Politics of Bondage and Freedom in the New American Nation, Virginia, 2011

The story of freedom and slavery inverted. Bartlet Shanklyn 3,500 Chesapeake slaves “stole” themselves to British forces. Free black population restricted. The South and the federal government: a complicated relationship.

Spread of Plantation Slavery Spread of Cotton

Federalists fight back. Early Northern emancipation laws ( ) bearing fruit, even accelerated. Emancipation Acts: New York, 1817; Pennsylvania 1815; Ohio, 1817 American Colonization Society founded 1817 Growth in free black population in North Unknown artist and place, Probably New England, c

National Debates Fugitive Slave Act of 1818—failed. Slave Trade Acts of 1819, 1820 Piracy Missouri Controversy, See: Robert Forbes, The Missouri Compromise and its Aftermath, North Carolina Press, 2007.

African Americans in the Navy Estimated 15 to 20% of enlisted men in U.S. navy Others on Privateers and Merchant Marine Post 1820s, tainted with “freedom.” Denmark Vesey, 1822

Battle to make slavery safe in the Union Negro Seamen’s Acts Nullification 1830s: anti-abolition mobs The Slave’s Friend, 1839

American nationalism made manifest culturally and to an extent politically, but also sews the seeds for future sectional conflict. Increased security—especially after 1819—and the expansion it allows generates concern while empowering different regions to more assuredly stake their claim to being the “true America.” Transportation Revolution and Growing national market creates more trade but also political tensions, culminates in nullification crisis War opens lands for cotton and slavery’s expansion, ensuring its vibrancy and pointing the way towards what we might see as American’s “Third Civil War,” and easily its bloodiest.